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MICHAEL

He watched Guy walk across the stage and tip their head to receive their juris doctor hood. The light caught the part in their freshly barbered hair. The crusty dean of the law school unwittingly smiled— unwittingly , because he never smiled—at Guy’s blinding, infectious grin.

Guy was ’s best friend. had tied their tie before the ceremony, wondering if best friends noticed their best friend’s abs when their shirt pulled up from their trousers. He had, in fact, taken his best friend to shop for their first suit, navigating Brooks Brothers with Guy, shooting daggers at the tailor whose mouth made a disapproving frown when he saw Guy’s binder. He’d found a fresh spot that Guy couldn’t reach under their shoulder blade to apply a T patch, realizing he was lingering too long over it, letting his fingers rest against Guy’s skin.

He had taken Guy to a gay bar for the first time and nearly ground down his back teeth in jealousy, watching them put their hand around the nape of some shirtless nobody, someone who wasn’t , who was supposed to be their friend. had been Guy’s friend since the first day here, when helped them carry boxes to their apartment in the same building had just moved into, Guy’s hair long then, clipped up, their blue eyes uncertain. It would be months before Guy told where that uncertainty came from. Why they weren’t as happy as they made everyone else.

After the ceremony, Guy found in the crowd, waving madly, so completely Guy that it made ’s stomach tighten and goose bumps wash down his spine, and before they knew it, he was taking Guy’s hand and pulling them down a cool marble hallway away from all the people until stopped in a dark corner and faced Guy, putting his hand on their chest, curling his fingers into the cords of their graduation hood.

“I don’t want to be friends anymore.” That was what said, and it broke his heart and made his heart at the same time to say it, right against Guy’s mouth.

“Oh, thank God,” Guy said, kissing and finally, finally, completing the world that they’d made together.